Gadao's Cave

Gadao's Cave
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Pictograph from Gadao's Cave thought to depict the legendary Chiefs Gadao and Malagueña.
Location	Address restricted [1]
Nearest city	Inarajan, Guam
Area	0.1 acres (0.040 ha)
NRHP reference No.	74002309 [2]
Added to NRHP	November 19, 1974

Gadao's Cave, also known as Liyang Gadao, is a rock art site on the United States island of Guam, located near the village of Inarajan. The cave was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. ^[2]

Images

The cave is the site of a panel of approximately 50 Chamorro ^[3] pictographs, painted with a mixture of coral lime and tree sap. The most unusual images are of two human stick figures that appear to be carrying things. It is not known who painted them or when, nor what their significance is. ^[4] The legendary chief of Inarajan Gadao is said to be the creator of the cave's images. ^[5]

Space

The entrance to the cave is about 10–12 feet (3.0–3.7 m) wide and about 10 feet (3 m) high. The following chamber is about 8 feet (2.4 m) deep, 5 feet (1.5 m) wide, and 7 feet (2.1 m) high and its highest point. A small slit between the walls at the chamber's ends opens into a small cavity about 3 feet (1 m) deep, 2 feet (60 cm) wide, and 7 feet (2.1 m) high.

The outer chamber has the majority of images, whose sizes range from about 3 inches (7.6 cm) to 1 foot (30 cm). ^[5]

Documentation

In 1901, Georg Fritz, the administrator of the German colonial district of the Mariana Islands, documented some of the pictograms. In 1904, he published them in Die Chamorro. It was the first publication on rock art in Micronesia. ^[6]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Guam

References

1. Federal and state laws and practices restrict general public access to information regarding the specific location of this resource. In some cases, this is to protect archeological sites from vandalism, while in other cases it is restricted at the request of the owner. See: Knoerl, John; Miller, Diane; Shrimpton, Rebecca H. (1990), Guidelines for Restricting Information about Historic and Prehistoric Resources, National Register Bulletin, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, OCLC   20706997 .
2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
3. Taborosi, Danko (2004). Field Guide to Caves and Karst of Guam. Bess Press. p. 61. ISBN   9781573061797.
4. "National Asian-Pacific Heritage Month: Guam". National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2017-05-07. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
5. Cabrera, Genevieve; Tudela, Herman (November 2006). "CONVERSATIONS WITH I MAN-ANITI: Interpretation of Discoveries of the Rock Art in the Northern Mariana Islands" (PDF). Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences. 5: 42–52.
6. Spennemann, Dirk (November 2006). "Combining Curiosity with Political Skill: The Antiquarian Interests and Cultural Politics of Georg Fritz" (PDF). Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences. 5: 495 – via 504.